Cervero, Petrobras chief, sentenced in corruption case

18 August 2015, News Wires – A Brazilian judge has reportedly sentenced Nestor Cervero, former international chief of Petrobras, to just over 12 years in prison for corruption and money laundering related to a bribe allegedly paid to the speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress.

Cervero and two other defendants are accused of organising bribes from Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries in exchange for two drillship contracts – the Petrobras 10000, which was leased jointly by Petrobras and Mitsui in 2006, and the Vitoria 10000, hired by Petrobras in 2007.

Consultant Julio Camargo, who said in plea bargain testimony that Speaker Eduardo Cunha asked him for a $5 million bribe, was given a 14-year sentence that was reduced to reporting to police twice monthly and doing community service because he collaborated, Reuters reported.

Lobbyist Fernando Soares, accused of funneling bribes to Cunha’s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), was sentenced to just over 16 years in jail.

Cunha, who quit President Dilma Rousseff’s ruling coalition last month, accused her government of framing him in the broadening Operation Car Wash scandal.

In May, Cervero was sentenced to five years in prison for using a front company to launder money stolen from Petrobras and buy a luxury apartment in Rio de Janeiro. He was fired from Petrobras in 2014 and arrested in January as he stepped off a plane from Europe.

Executives at Samsung Heavy Industries are not being charged and the company has not responded to request for comment about the case, Reuters said.